Do not, under any circumstances, give me a pink ribbon. Save your money on angel pins. Don’t waste your money on pink lip balm. And, for crissakes, stop feeding Komen by buying shit. I don’t think any one needs a compact with a pink ribbon on it as “the perfect way to make a statement.” (Look at the website. That’s what it says.)

Today I met with my oncologist. She informed me that the Death Star is a “locally advanced cancer.” Apparently the fact that it is poorly differentiated, loaded with estrogen, has a dash of progesterone, and 2+ HER2/neu means that I am a lucky candidate for chemotherapy. The FISH test hasn’t come back–the results will be in tomorrow. And if that is >2.0 I am also the winner of Herceptin!

Yay!

And all of this on top of 16 weeks of Tamoxifen to help shrink the Death Star. So if shrinkage occurs, in 16 weeks I’ll have a lumpectomy and start throwing up just in time for the holidays. I always wanted a completely bald head in January. It’s a banner year ahead.

I’m sure you know that it depends which chemo you get; they don’t all cause your hair to fall out. There are some things you can do to make the experience less traumatic – if you don’t know them already, I’ll be glad to tell you what I did.

In terms of staying warm – layers are good. Try a thin cotton cap or kerchief next to your skin and a warm wool one over that.

I had a double mastectomy w/o recon July 28th 2011. I will buy any Pink Ribbon item that could save someones life. One site will give a FREE mammo to a lady who had NO insurance. If I wear a pink ribbon it just may remind someone they need to get a yearly check-up. I wear the pink ribbon everytime I go out. It just a way of letting other women know it could happen to you. Be pro-active in this fight with breast cancer.

Shirley, many women who actually HAVE breast cancer HATE the pink ribbons. We feel corrupt fund-raisers are using our disease to sell a bunch of products which do NOTHING to help breast cancer patients. If you want to help someone with breast cancer do a bake sale to help her pay for treatment. It would do more than the Pink Ribbons. Also, mammograms only work for about 60% of women, They don’t work on the 40% who have dense breast tissue. So please ask your doctor if you have dense breast tissue and get an ULTRASOUND if you do. My cancer didn’t show on mammogram, only on ULTRASOUND and I had a large tumor.